Pennsylvania NASP State Championships On March 8

Nearly 900 students from 30 schools will compete

HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Game Commission officials today announced 890 students from 30 schools throughout the state will compete in the National Archery in the Schools Program 2013 State Tournament on Friday, March 8, at the Penn State Multi-Sport Facility in University Park, Centre County.

In mid-2010, the Game Commission began coordinating Pennsylvania's NASP, which helps school districts in Pennsylvania meet physical education curriculum requirements of the state Department of Education, while at the same time introducing them to the world of competitive archery. The program has experienced considerable growth under the Game Commission's guidance with 363 students competing in the tournament in 2010 and 494 in 2011. A breakdown of this year's registered students is 410 females and 480 males.

"At least 125 schools are involved in Pennsylvania NASP," said Samantha Pedder, Game Commission outreach coordinator, who oversees NASP for the agency. In 2012, the agency received national recognition for having the greatest percentage increase in schools among the 48 states participating in NASP. "As a result of the overwhelming response from schools to participate in the tournament, we're adding more shooting positions to the event's range to accommodate everyone. Over the last three years, the range has nearly doubled in size, allowing 190 students to shoot at one time."

Studies conducted by the national NASP organization demonstrate NASP is a great introduction to the sport of archery, and that many students choose to pursue the sport outside of school. This year the PGC will again offer a "Shooter's Expo" to provide participants a chance to explore other outdoor-related activities, such as 3-D archery target shooting and turkey calling.

"NASP fosters an interest in archery for these students, and we hope this continuing expo feature will introduce students to different opportunities to expand their archery experience," Pedder said. "We want to encourage them to keep shooting and to consider taking the next steps toward 3-D archery tournaments and, eventually, bowhunting, which are natural avenues for archers to hone and maintain their skills. The students also will have opportunities to talk with representatives from USA Archery's Junior Olympic Archery Development program, United Bowhunters of Pennsylvania and Penn State's Archery Team."

The competition will begin at 9 a.m., and consist of five flights followed by an awards presentation. Each archer will shoot one practice round of five arrows at 10 meters, and then shoot three scoring rounds of five arrows (15 arrows total) at 10 meters. After that, each archer will shoot one practice round of five arrows at 15 meters and then shoot three scoring rounds of five arrows (15 arrows total) at 15 meters. Archers will have two minutes to shoot each five-arrow round.

At the awards ceremony, which will begin around 3:30 p.m., one team trophy will be awarded to each of the first- through third-place teams in each division (elementary, middle and high school). Each first- through third-place team member also will receive a plaque.

Individuals will receive trophies for first- through third-place male and female participant categories in each division (elementary, middle and high school), and plaques for fourth- and fifth-place individual males and females in those grades. Also, each participant will receive a certificate and medal.

The five flights are scheduled to run as follows, along with the schools participating in each flight:

NASP Tournaments are held at the state, national and international levels. To qualify for the National NASP Tournament, which will be held May 10-11, in Louisville, Kentucky, teams must meet the following requirements:

Teams must be first place in the state tournaments in their division; elementary (fourth through sixth grades), middle (seventh through eighth grades), and high school (ninth through twelfth grades); and

Teams must have 12 or more archers who participated in the state tournament and meet qualifying scores (qualifying score equals the sum of the top 12 archers, with at least 4 of the opposite gender) as follows:

Elementary School qualifying score is 2,850 points;

Middle School qualifying score is 2,950 points;

High School qualifying score is 3,050 points;

The first-place team in each division from every state is qualified, regardless of its team score;

Male and female individuals placing 1st-5th in elementary division or in the middle and high school divisions.

NASP is a joint venture that partners with state education and wildlife management agencies and archery equipment manufacturers and organizations to promote student education, physical education and participation in the lifelong sport of archery. The program's focus is to provide international-style archery training in physical education classes in grades four through 12.

For more information on NASP, visit www.pgc.state.pa.us and select the "Archery in Your School" tab. To get NASP started in a Pennsylvania school, contact Samantha Pedder, at the Game Commission headquarters, at 717-787-4250. Also, Pennsylvania NASP can be found on Facebook by searching for "Penn NASP."

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